Sunbury Press Books Show -- Mere Catholicism
b'C. S. Lewis\\u2019\\xa0Mere Christianity\\xa0is the obvious inspiration for the title of this book. In that book, Lewis uses the example of a person standing in a hall that is lined on both sides by rooms: Each room represents a different Christian tradition. He wanted to get readers into the hallway and let them choose for themselves whether to enter Christianity by the door of Anglicanism, Catholicism, and so forth.\\n\\nMere Christianity\\xa0brilliantly focuses on what essentially all Christians agree upon; namely the Creed, the canon of the New Testament, etc. However, many of the great controversies between Protestants and Catholics are purposely not discussed. There were ecumenical reasons for avoiding topics like papal primacy, purgatory, Marian devotions, and so forth. But, by avoiding these sorts of topics,\\xa0Mere Christianity\\xa0can be read as\\xa0Mere Protestantism.\\n\\nI wrote\\xa0Mere Catholicism\\xa0to address some of those missing topics. Even though I am both intellectually and emotionally convinced of the truth of Catholic Christianity, I am indebted to C. S. Lewis (an Anglican) for helping me better understand how Christianity offers the most compelling\\xa0raison\\xa0d\\u2019\\xeatre. His\\xa0work\\xa0and I hope my own is an exploration of \\u201cfaith seeking understanding,\\u201d to quote St. Anselm of Canterbury.'